Hulk Hogan

In 1978, he made his wrestling debut in Florida using the Super Destroyer gimmick. He later wrestled as Terry Boulder and Sterling Golden before becoming Hulk Hogan.

He joined the World Wrestling Entertainment in 1979, cast as an Irish villain.

Ranked #1 in the "PWI 500" of the PWI Years (1979-1999) (Pro Wrestling Illustrated 20th Anniversary Special)

During his 1980s heyday in the WWE, he lived next door to WWF owner Vince McMahon for almost 10 years.

In 1981, Verne Gagne brought Hogan to the AWA.

His original theme song was "Eye of the Tiger," which was the theme song of Rocky III (1982), in which he made an appearance.

In late 1982, Hogan and Antonio Inoki won the 3rd Annual MSG Tag League.

His first WWF title reign lasted from January 1984 to February 1988, when he lost to André the Giant.

Won his first WWF World Heavyweight title more than 18 years ago on January 23, 1984, when he defeated the Iron Sheik (Khosrow Vaziri) in one of the shortest heavyweight title matches in history. It took Hogan 5 minutes and 40 seconds to pin the Sheik with a leg drop.

He appeared in some of the live-action segments of the cartoon series Hulk Hogan's "Rock 'n' Wrestling" (1985) (1985-1986).

He was one of the wrestlers featured in the cartoon series Hulk Hogan's "Rock 'n' Wrestling" (1985) (1985-1986), though he did not provide his own voice. Brad Garrett of "Everybody Loves Raymond" (1996) was the voice of the animated Hulkster.

In probably the most historic wrestling match ever, he body-slammed and defeated André the Giant at WrestleMania III (1987) (V). Despite reports to the contrary, he was not the first man to body-slam André. Eight-time National Wrestling Alliance Champion Harley Race did so several years before, and Hogan himself body-slammed André in a match in 1980 (which appears on the Hulk Hogan anthology DVD).

Has only lost three times at Wrestlemania. His first loss was to The Ultimate Warrior' James Hellwig' at WrestleMania VI (1990) (V). The second time was as a teammate of Brutus the Barber Beefcake at Wrestlemania IX (1993)_ against Money Inc. (Ted DiBiase and Mike Rotunda (IRS)) as a result of a disqualification. The final time was to Dwayne Johnson at WrestleMania X8 (2002) (TV).

Lost to The Ultimate James Hellwig at WrestleMania VI (1990) (V) and Dwayne Johnson at WrestleMania X8 (2002) (TV) in the same venue - Skydome, Toronto, Canada.

The character "Hawk" from Vendetta (1991) (VG) was modeled after him.

Lost his WWF championship once in his career in the Survivor Series in 1991 to The Undertaker (Mark Calaway).

Was considered for the role of Little John in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)).

On an episode of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" (1992), it was revealed that he was initially offered the chance to endorse the "Lean, Mean, Grilling Machine" that went on to make former boxer George Foreman millions of dollars.

Admitted to steroid use in 1994.

Filmed the show "Thunder in Paradise" (1994) at Disney-MGM Studios at Walt Disney World, in Orlando, Florida.

Lost WCW World Championship to Bill Goldberg on July 6, 1998, in Atlanta's Georgia Dome on "WCW Monday Nitro" (1995).

Defeated Yokozuna in Wrestlemania IX for the WWF championship after Yokozuna defeated Bret Hitman Hart. It was the shortest wrestling match in history for the WWF title. This record was later broken by Kevin Nash in 1995 when he beat Bob Backlund in 8 seconds for the world title.

Was Joel Schumacher's third choice to play Mr. Freeze/Dr. Victor Fries in Batman & Robin (1997).

Won the WCW Heavyweight Championship six times, the last being 1999.

Signed as official spokesman for an Acclaim video game entitled Legends of Wrestling (2001) (VG). [October 2001]

Won the WWF Championship six times. The last time he won it was in May 2002.

April 21, 2002: Won the WWF (Undisputed) Championship for the 6th time from HHH at WWF Backlash (2002) (TV).

Only once did he ever win a tag-team championship, that was with Adam Copeland (aka Edge) in July 2002. He was the direct inspiration for Copeland to enter the business 12 years prior.

Wrestled as Mr. America in 2003 in WWE.

Elected to the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2003.

Daughter Brooke Hogan sang the national anthems at the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals in Tampa.

His daughter, Brooke Hogan, released her debut solo album in August 2004.

Inducted into the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Hall of Fame in 2005.

Teamed up with Shawn Michaels to face Mark Magnus (aka Muhammad Hassan) and Shawn Daivari (aka Daivari) at Backlash 2005.

Until recently, neither he nor the WWF/WCW (titan Sports) owned the full rights to his "Hulk" name. "Hulkamania," "Hulk Hogan," and "Hulkster" were all owned by Marvel Comics. The WWF/WWE made a deal with Marvel to use the name "Hulk." This was also done with WCW when Hogan went to WCW. Also, WCW used "Hollywood Hogan" to cancel the Marvel deal, but the deal was still alive. However, before the 2006 release of his multidisk anthology, Hogan acquired the rights to the name Hulk Hogan from Marvel. The trademark citation "Hulk Hogan is a trademark of Terry Bollea" can be found on the DVD-set credits.

As of 2007, he has the fourth-most Wrestlemania wrestling appearances, having appeared in 11. He wrestled in Wrestlemanias 1-9, and 18-19. (He appeared at Wrestlemania 21, but did not officially wrestle). Third-most is Bret "The Hitman" Hart (Bret Hart), with 12; second-most, Shawn Michaels with 14, and the Undertaker (Mark Calaway) holds the record for most, with 15 appearances.

Turned down the chance to travel to Iraq as part of the WWE Tribute to the Troops show in 2008.

Twisted his ankle during the filming of Little Hercules in 3-D (2009).

Underwent back surgery in a Florida hospital on December 21, 2010.